He was probably much influenced in his new policy by Lothar Bucher, one of his private secretaries, who was constantly with him at Varzin.  Bucher, who had been an extreme Radical, had, in 1849, been compelled to fly from the country and had lived many years in England.  In 1865 he had entered Bismarck’s service.  He had acquired a peculiar enmity to the Cobden Club, and looked on that institution as the subtle instrument of a deep-laid plot to persuade other nations to adopt a policy which was entirely for the benefit of England.  He drew attention to Cobden’s words—­“All we desire is the prosperity and greatness of England.”  We may in fact look on the Cobden Club and the principles it advocated from two points of view.  Either they are, as Bucher maintained, simply English and their only result will be the prosperity of England, or they are merely one expression of a general form of thought which we know as Liberalism; it was an attempt to create cosmopolitan institutions and to induce German politicians to take their economic doctrines from England, just as a few years before they had taken their political theories.  In either case these doctrines would be very distasteful to Bismarck, who disliked internationalism in finance as much as he did in constitutional law or Socialist propaganda.

Bismarck in adopting Protection was influenced, not by economic theory, but by the observation of facts.  “All nations,” he said, “which have Protective duties enjoy a certain prosperity; what great advantages has America reached since it threatened to reduce duties twice, five times, ten times as high as ours!” England alone clung to Free Trade, and why?  Because she had grown so strong under the old system of Protection that she could now as a Hercules step down into the arena and challenge everyone to come into the lists.  In the arena of commerce England was the strongest.  This was why she advocated Free Trade, for Free Trade was really the right of the most powerful.  English interests were furthered under the veil of the magic word Freedom, and by it German enthusiasts for liberty were enticed to bring about the ruin and exploitation of their own country.

If we look at the matter purely from the economic point of view, it is indeed difficult to see what benefits Germany would gain from a policy of Free Trade.  It was a poor country; if it was to maintain itself in the modern rivalry of nations, it must become rich.  It could only become rich through manufactures, and manufactures had no opportunity of growing unless they had some moderate protection from foreign competition.

The effect of Bismarck’s attention to finance was not limited to these great reforms; he directed the whole power of the Government to the support of all forms of commercial enterprise and to the removal of all hindrances to the prosperity of the nation.  To this task he devoted himself with the same courage and determination which he had formerly shewn in his diplomatic work.